Terry Anslow, Chief Inspector of the ELSPA Crime Unit slammed the judge at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, following his comments during the case and sentencing.
Kevin Bailey and Radomir Lukic, both of Loughborough, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud and trademark offences.
The case comes as the result of a major investigation by the National Crime Squad and British Telecom investigators which uncovered an enterprise involving the “chipping” of pay-as-you-go mobile phones (an illegal practice that enables free calls), the manufacture and distribution of decoder devices (which allow the user to receive cable television without subscription) and computer games counterfeiting.
Radomir Lukic , 41, was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for BT fraud offences and Kevin Bailey was given 150 hours community service order and ordered to pay £5,500 compensation.
Judge Bray, had been made aware that Bailey was found to have 912 counterfeit compact discs containing PlayStation games, he also had 1,000 copied discs - his masters - and admitted to selling several thousand copied discs to “friends and family” for five pounds each. Judge Bray did not regard this quantity as a commercial transaction and stated: "I do not close my eyes to the fact that the retailers and publishers are grossly overcharging the general public".
The judge also said: "Counterfeiting of games is now so widespread and the reason is the public feel that there is gross overcharging by manufacturers of discs".
In regard to Lukic, the judge felt that his fraudulent actions in regard to mobile telephones was in a different category to counterfeiting of compact discs, because if BT were to make substantial losses that would be passed on to the telephone customers, which included Judge Bray, resulting in higher charges for consumers.
Terry Anslow, Chief Investigator of the ELSPA Crime Unit commented:
"I feel that many of the remarks made by Judge Bray were uninformed, his knowledge of the games industry is not what it should be. Less than 5- miles away from his Court, in Warwickshire , in the last month we have seen 90 families directly affected by counterfeiting when the employees of a major company were made redundant due to the increase in piracy.
“Whilst I have no complaint regarding the sentencing itself - taking into account Bailey had no previous convictions - the remarks of the Judge I feel were completely incorrect. Trademark law and Copyright law exist to protect intellectual property rights. When senior judiciary take the view that, because it is a widespread crime it deserves a lower categorisation to other fraud, it is sending a very mixed message. Fortunately this judge's views are not shared by other courts who take this type of offence very seriously, and give it the degree of seriousness that it should attract"